Rumble...
Thunder cracked across the sky, and the pouring rain completely drenched Shiho's body.
Her pupils shrank. Her lips parted slightly. Her heartbeat surged, pounding in her chest at a speed she had never experienced before.
In that moment, intense fear caused the blood to drain from her brain. Her limbs went cold, and she nearly lost consciousness.
Black clothes, black hat, black umbrella, and a black silenced pistol.
The tall figure standing in the storm, in Shiho's eyes, was like the gate of hell swinging open, and the one standing before her was a demon that had crawled out.
What followed would be the ukiyo-e of hell.
In the end... was it all meaningless?
Shiho's heart sank.
She really couldn't escape the Organization's pursuit. Death was her only fate.
No, what awaited her might be even more terrifying than death.
She was now in her shrunken form after taking APTX4869.
Yet she had still been discovered and intercepted by the Organization.
With such a bizarre transformation, the Organization would definitely capture her for human experimentation and research.
Her future life would be more miserable than death. As a test subject, she would be subjected to the cruelest forms of torture.
Hope turned to despair. Combined with the aftereffects of the drug, the fatigue from a full day of fleeing in a child's body, and the cold wind and rain...
All of it hit her at once. Her brain shut down completely. Her genius mind defaulted to the most appropriate survival reaction.
Shiho's body went limp, and she fainted.
Toru, who had raised his pistol with the intent to spook her, was caught off guard.
Did he overdo it? She actually fainted?
Wasn't Sherry supposed to have a unique ability to sense whether someone was from the Organization?
Maybe it was because he had committed too many crimes in the past. His aura really wasn't any different from that of a Black Organization killer.
Muttering to himself, he holstered his pistol and stepped quickly through the rain to the unconscious girl.
She lay face-down in a puddle, completely unconscious.
If no one helped her, she might actually drown in this rain.
Drowning in a puddle... that would make the top ten strangest deaths in history.
He crouched down, took off his waterproof coat, wrapped it around her tiny body, and picked her up like she was a kitten.
His car was parked nearby. He carried her over and gently placed her in the passenger seat.
Turning on the heater, he ignored whether she'd soak the seats and placed his hand on her forehead. It was burning hot.
He touched her skin. It was freezing cold, as if she could stop breathing any moment.
"She's burning up. And it's no mild fever."
He frowned, started the car, and drove through the storm toward home.
Back at the mansion, he carried her into the second bedroom. Her soaked clothes clung tightly to her small frame, cold and drenched from head to toe.
Since she had transformed into a child, she didn't have any proper clothes. Even her underwear was too big and had been discarded. Aside from the lab coat, she had nothing underneath.
She had walked barefoot all day. Her little feet were covered in grime, with scrapes and small cuts scattered across the skin.
After all, she had grown up pampered. Her skin was too delicate. Walking barefoot all day would obviously leave injuries.
He couldn't clean her up now. After tucking her under the quilt, he found some children's fever medicine, squeezed the liquid into a dropper, and gently dripped it into her trembling mouth.
"She was probably over 40 degrees earlier. Now that she's out of her wet clothes and warming up, her temperature's dropping a bit. I'll keep monitoring her. If it doesn't go down, I'll take her to the hospital in the morning."
Toru pulled a chair over and sat beside the bed.
He couldn't sleep tonight. He had to stay with her in case anything happened. If her condition worsened, he'd have to rush her to the hospital right away.
He needed her help.
There was still a large amount of encrypted drug data on the hard drive he'd retrieved. He couldn't just hand it over to Spencer.
But if he faked it, they'd catch him.
That's why he needed Shiho to help clean up the drug data, then extract a version to send to Spencer—something that looked valuable, but was functionally worthless.
He couldn't do it himself. First, because the data was password-protected, and he hadn't had time to crack it.
Second, he simply didn't understand the content. It wasn't in his wheelhouse.
The night passed in silence.
"...I'm alive?"
After a full night's rest, her condition had improved, though her head was still hazy and her body weak. Her sweat-soaked body clung to the sheets.
Suddenly, she froze.
Her eyes widened. Memories came flooding back. She had been caught by the Organization. Could this place be one of their labs?
The thought sent a jolt through her, and her mind cleared in an instant.
She scanned the room quickly to assess her surroundings.
It looked like a regular house. The furniture and décor were high-end, but warm.
No. Her condition was weak. This was probably a rest room in a lab facility. No matter how warm the design seemed, it was fake. Just another form of deception.
Shiho struggled to sit up. That's when she realized—she wasn't wearing any clothes.
Ignoring the embarrassment, she didn't care who had stripped her last night, or if this body had already been examined inside and out. Her only thought was escape.
They hadn't restrained her. Did they think she couldn't escape just because she was a child now?
She forced herself to stay calm. As she checked her body and searched for an exit, she slipped from under the quilt.
A chill hit her instantly, and her body shivered from the cold air.
Not far from the bed, there was a window. That was the easiest escape route.
She crawled across the bed toward it, wondering why a test subject's room had a window at all.
Reaching the edge, she peeked outside—and froze.
There was a European-Japanese courtyard outside, filled with bright red roses. Several cherry trees had already begun to bloom.
Past the courtyard was a quiet street, with detached homes nearby. In the distance, skyscrapers were visible.
Everything about it screamed a normal Tokyo neighborhood. The only oddity was the beautiful courtyard.
As she stood stunned, the door behind her opened.
Toru walked in... and paused.
Right in front of him, Shiho was on all fours, crawling on the bed in a rear-facing position.
She turned her head in confusion. The moment she saw him standing there, looking at her with that teasing smile, she snapped awake. She yelped, dove under the quilt, and demanded with a flushed face,
"Who are you?!"
"You're awake? I'd suggest not moving too much. Your fever's come down, but it's still there."
"A child's body isn't like an adult's. Your immune system's weak. If you overexert yourself, it could get worse. You need to rest."
He placed a small bowl of plain porridge on the nightstand. "...When you're sick, eat something light. Porridge should help you sweat a little too."
Wrapped tightly in the quilt, Shiho felt a layer of psychological armor settle over her. She was a rational person. Fear had shaken her, but not broken her completely.
"Who are you really? Are you from the Organization? Where am I? What do you want from me?"
She fired off her questions rapidly.
But as she looked closely at him, her eyes widened. She murmured, "I know you."
"Huh? You know me?"
He was caught off guard.
He didn't recall meeting her before.
"If I remember correctly, you're this year's freshman representative at Tokyo University. I saw your entrance speech."
"My speech was less than ten minutes. You remember my face? Were you at the auditorium?"
Her response was unexpected.
"I wasn't there. I saw the livestream. Normally, people forget a stranger's face not long after meeting them."
"But the entrance ceremony wasn't that long ago, and I have a good memory. That's how I recognized you."
There was something else she didn't say. She had found his speech interesting at the time, so she had paid attention. That was why she remembered his face.
Otherwise, with no photographic memory, she wouldn't have remembered a stranger so clearly.
"So since you know I'm a Tokyo University student, get some rest. I took a day off to take care of you. If you died here, I'd be in trouble."
"Skipping class right after school starts doesn't look great."
Despite what he said, Toru didn't seem to care at all.
"...Are you from the Organization?"
Her voice trembled.
"Why ask that? I'm just a normal college student."
He smiled.
"A disguise. This is just a disguise."
Shiho didn't know if it was a special sense she had, but she could easily pick up that Organization-like aura.
Toru had a bright smile and innocent eyes full of youthful energy.
But to her, it was like watching an alligator hiding just beneath the surface. That cheerfulness was fake.
If she had to compare, he was like Gin pretending to be a student.
In fact, she thought he was even more dangerous than Gin.
Because Gin never pretended. He was brutal and cold, but at least honest about it.
"I am from an Organization, Sherry."
He was still smiling, but his voice dropped.
Her pupils shrank. She gave a bitter laugh.
"So this is the new punishment, huh? Before experimenting on me, you're sending someone to pry into my mind?"
He chuckled. "You've misunderstood something. I said I'm from an Organization. I didn't say which one."
The Black Organization was an Organization. So was the Central Intelligence Agency.
"But it doesn't matter. To any Organization, you're a treasure—your mind, your body. All of it."
Suddenly, Toru tossed something onto the bed.
Her expression shifted immediately. She was very familiar with that box.
She reached out with trembling hands, opened it... and saw the red and white capsules inside.
The very drug that had shrunk her.
APTX4869. The poison she had created herself.
(To be continued.)